Midland singer part of Grammy nominated recording

Published 2:00 am, Sunday, February 12, 2012

Midland High School graduate Molly Young has a close connection to today's Grammy awards -- her voice is on a nominated recording.

Young's voice is on Seraphic Fire's recording of Brahms' German Requiem, which is up for best choral performance of the year. Young had previously worked with the choral group and the John Hopkins University Peabody Institute graduate student became a part of the recording during a workshop.

The workshop was for college age/preprofessional singers, so the soprano spent a week rehearsing the requiem with Patrick Dupre Quigley, Seraphic Fire's artistic director, and then did three days of recording with the group at the University of South Florida.

"Knowing the caliber of musicians I was working with and knowing the engineer ... I know we did something really special," she said. "It's a very different take on the piece."

Young came close to becoming part of a Grammy-nominated work before. Her previous recording with the group just missed the cut.

Being a part of these professional recordings made it so Young could become a member of National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. This gave her a vote in the awards themselves.

She enjoyed combing through the huge ballot but didn't feel comfortable voting for everything. However, she was happy to get her votes in for the categories she knew.

Though living Baltimore now and studying (along with singing at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C.), growing up Midland gave her opportunities such as with the Midland High Meistersingers and with Teenage Musicals Inc.

"Midland was an absolutely fantastic place to grow up and want to be a performer" she said. "There's a lot of encouragement there."

For now, Young is working on her master's in vocal performance to augment the bachelor's in performance she earned at Western Michigan University. Then, she plans on completing another master's degree at John Hopkins, and from there, she said she has a lot of options. This could include some teaching in between performances with different choirs on different tours.